Squamish hotel tax moves closer to law

Revenue could help in competitive corridor
marketing

Tourism Squamish (TS) has the political
go-ahead in drafting an additional hotel tax bylaw, a move that could help the
arms-length organization fund a marketing plan designed to promote Squamish as
a base camp destination in the Sea to Sky corridor.

“Moving forward, we’ll be going around one
more time to talk to the proprietors that have not signed on,” said TS director
Leslie Weeks during last Tuesday’s council strategy session.

While support of only 51 per cent of affected
properties and 51 per cent of total units is required to enact the tax, Weeks
and her colleagues have secured 60 per cent of total units and 55 per cent of
total properties in Squamish.

If approved, the bylaw will levy an additional
two per cent tax on the pre-existing eight per cent hotel room tax collected by
the province. The province will continue to collect the monies, then remit it
to the district, who in turn will funnel it to TS. The tourism body must then
apply the dollars to marketing or the financing and operation of tourist
facilities.

According to Weeks’s presentation, the tax
could generate as much as $269,000 a year, once hotels in various stages of
proposal come on stream. Up to now, TS has been funded through grant money.

Should the bylaw ascend, TS’s advisory board
will determine how best to spend the money within the framework set out by the
province. Composed of local tourism industry representatives, the board has
two-year terms. There are 13 seats on the board.

There are 11 hotels in Squamish.

The base camp marketing strategy emerged
earlier this year. Rather than compete with Whistler or Vancouver, the strategy
is to offer tourists something different.

“There’s a lot of effort right now to market
the Lower Mainland and let them know we’re only 45 minutes north of Vancouver,”
said Weeks in a previous interview with
Pique Newsmagazine
. “You can play in Squamish and stay in Squamish, but also go see
Whistler.”